asked the Minister for the Environment the criteria used to determine the amount of block road grants made each year to each local authority.
Written Answers. - Road Grants.
253.
The block grant allows county councils a wide discretion in the determination of their annual programme of works on main and country roads. It replaced four separate grants and initially it was related to the total of those grants which in turn had been determined, inter alia, by the open ended discretionary expenditure of councils on the maintenance of main roads. The grants in any year are determined primarily by the total Exchequer provision for roads purposes and to the relative needs and the overall level of activity in each area.